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A Gift for the Oceans

By Eva Emerson

In May, USC College will celebrate the installment of biologist Dennis Hedgecock as the Paxson H. Offield Professor of Fisheries Ecology.

A member of the advisory board of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, “Packy” Offield endowed the new professorship to bolster fisheries research and training at the Institute and its Philip K. Wrigley Marine Science Center at Big Fisherman's Cove on Catalina Island.

Hedgecock, who combines basic research on the genetics of marine animals with broader interests in aquaculture and fisheries management, will lead the Wrigley fisheries program Offield helped to establish in 2000 with a $1.5 million pledge.

The great grandson of William Wrigley, Jr., Offield lives on Catalina where he serves as chairman and CEO of the Santa Catalina Island Company.

Saving marine fisheries has long been a passion for Offield, an avid fisherman who founded the Catalina Seabass Fund, serves on the board of the Billfish Foundation, is a benefactor member of the Catalina Conservancy and has led local, regional and national marine conservation organizations.

His extensive involvement in the issue has impressed upon him the need to train skilled fisheries biologists who not only understand the scientific aspects of managing fisheries, but also understand the political, economic and social impacts of management decisions—the kind of big picture approach fostered at the Wrigley Institute.

“I thought it would be a real shame if we put together an entire marine sciences research center only to find there are no more fish in the ocean. And that’s the direction we’re headed,” says Offield. “I was happy to endow the professorship. The Wrigley needed someone who could train the future leaders of fisheries biology and policy.”

For the last three years, the Offield Family Foundation has also supported the work of population geneticist Suzanne Edmands, an assistant professor of biology, through a $100,000 grant for her studies of migratory striped marlin populations.